Of Mice and Computers
When my great-great-grandmother was young (only about 20 years ago), there weren’t very many external things plugged into a computer. Life was simpler; people typed away and we electronic beings did our jobs.
My son, Chip, complains most about the external rats – known to you humans as a mouse. He says they don’t always allow him to work as fast as he can. I keep telling him show off those keyboard shortcuts. They have worked since the early days of computers, they save time, and there is no problem understanding them. But he is young and stubborn.
So, humans, oh humans… Take a look at your menus or ribbons, your dialog boxes and tool tips, and look for those keyboard shortcuts. Many of them start with Ctrl+ and have a letter or number to press. They really are easy, and some can even make sense to you humans, such as Ctrl+S for Save and Ctrl+P for Print.
You might ask how much time you would save by using keyboard shortcuts instead of a mouse for some tasks. Well, one of my favorite humans did a test. She uses the computer all the time for her job, so I asked her to not use shortcuts for a few days and she found this quite difficult. We figured that she used her mouse a couple thousand times a day, and just the time it took to move her hand took 2-3 seconds per touch. Well, that adds up to a couple hours a day. No, you probably can’t save all of it, but the tips in this newsletter will probably help you save a quarter of it if you learn them. So keep your hands on the keyboard and save the mouse for those pointing tasks.
